27706 Thursday, 2 July 2020 As sung by the random ladies of Camptown

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Another Thursday puzzle which put up some stiff resistance, at least for your humble correspondent. Perhaps it’s the pressure of having to justify everything as I worked through, but then I didn’t manage that until after submission for at least one clue (8) and some of another (3).
With Baron Cowdrey of Tunbridge (sic), and a (nearly 30 years) defunct airline (can it really be that long?) there’s at least a sense that you need to be of a certain age to readily access some of the clues, which consideration was not the handicap that slowed me down. The SW corner was my slowdown zone, with 16’s rather effective and deceptive lift and separate sending me down happy highways and byways.
We have two random women today, and in both clues, I don’t think there’s really a way of getting to the answer by guessing the name first: only by guessing the answer first can you work out the name. No big deal, but I thought I’d mention it.
My workings are concealed behind the press here button to avoid giving away answers to the casual observer. Clues are in italics, definitions also underlined. and answers in BOLD CAPITALS, one of them doubly so.

[Press here]

Across
1 Girl returns with small hound (6)
HARASS Random girl is SARAH, reversed/returned with S(mall) tacked on the end
5 About a thousand in Italy involved in disaster (8)
CALAMITY About CA (circa) a thousand: M (just coincidence or distraction that it’s a thousand in Roman era Italy), the rest surrounding the M is an anagram (involved ) of ITALY
9 Republican invested in key American plant (8)
MARJORAM A plant in the category of “known because I cook with it”. Key translates to MAJOR, insert R(epublican) and tack AM(erican) on the end
10 Player such as Cowdrey getting six for a hundred (6)
VIOLIN Acceptable, I think, to have a musician defined by the instrument played. Younger solvers (and many not interested in cricket) may not know that Cowdrey’s first name was Michael, but he was known by his middle name COLIN. I remember him coming in to bat with his arm in plaster against the fearsome West Indies’ Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith to salvage a draw. I was privileged to see Hall and Griffiths playing for a Wanderers team in 1979 in, of all places, Totnes in Devon. Still pretty fearsome even then.
Back to the clue: take COLIN, replace the hundred C with six VI
11 Turning around, ruffian grabs publicity thing (6)
DOODAH Our ruffian is a HOOD, insert AD for publicity and reverse the whole thing
12 Publicise search for firearm (3,5)
AIR RIFLE A simple charade: publicise AIR, search RIFLE
14 Journalist loses right to identify alleged adulterer (2-10)
CO-RESPONDENT Your journo is a CORRESPONDENT who is negligent of one of his R(ight)s. Chambers can’t be bothered with the hyphen, but I think it’s better with. Back in the day, you’d divorce your spouse for adultery, and the suspected third party would be the co-respondent with some rather natty two-tone shoes to emphasise (in this case) his caddishness.
17 Another refitted ship’s back from Tyneside? (12)
NORTHEASTERN An anagram of ANOTHER turns out to be NORTHEA, to the back of which you fit the back of a ship. Um, STERN
20 Charming island with bar area that’s set back (8)
ADORABLE Bar area? Snug? Lounge? Nope. The random island is ELBA, the bar is a ROD and Area provides the A. Reverse all.
22 Surgeon firstly uncovered wound (6)
SNAKED Surgeon first is, of course S. Add NAKED for uncovered. Not that sort of wound
23 Airline once located centrally in country (6)
PANAMA According to 2001, Pan Am was operating the shuttle form Earth to the great wheeling space station. It didn’t last that long, collapsing in 1991, but in much of its lifetime seemed invincible, too big to fail. Anyway, take it, add the middle of located (centrally) which turns out to be A, and voila!
25 Having high output for short duration — one critic’s conclusion (8)
PROLIFIC For: PRO, short duration LIF(e), one; I, critic’s conclusion: C
26 Put firearm in corner, perhaps (3,5)
SET PIECE Now that footie is back, albeit with those eerie recorded not-there crowds, the setter can be forgiven for the reference. Set pieces are corners, free kicks and other such advantages to the attacking side. Put: SET, firearm: PIECE
27 Vessel‘s new keel regularly maintained by sailor (6)
TANKER  New just contributes its N, KeEl its alternate letters (“regularly”) and the sailor “maintaining” them is a TAR
Down
2 A newspaper operating in part of Spain (6)
ARAGON A newspaper is A RAG, operating is ON. Now you know where Henry got Catherine from
3 One settling dispute in middle of road? Just schedule some coppers to turn up (11)
ADJUDICATOR A rare example of the “middle of” clue spreading over two words, in this case roAD JUst. Then schedule is ROTA, and some coppers CID, joined and reversed (to turn up)
4 Extra tax daily covered by sharp increase (9)
SURCHARGE Daily is the woman who does, the CHAR, in this instance surrounded by SURGE for sharp increase, as currently seen in some American states struggling with Covid 19. Stay safe!
5 Constant revision of maps in cartographer’s range (7)
COMPASS Constant is C, “revision” of MAPS gives you MPAS, contained in OS, the Ordnance Survey map-making brand
6 Left state in old vessel (5)
LAVER Now mostly an ecclesiastical basin, I think. Simple enough: L(eft) plus AVER for state
7 Briefly feeling low (3)
MOO MOOD cut short.
8 Two cracks, one said to be insignificant (8)
TRIFLING Only just got this. The two cracks are TRY and FLING, but the first one is said, giving TRI
13 Tend to get upset in current state: depression (11)
INDENTATION An anagram (upset) of TEND in current: I and state: NATION
15 Go too far having completed project (9)
OVERSHOOT One of several possibilities, given the range of synonyms for project. I started with REACH (not as good, but not impossible). Completed provides OVER
16 Hefty type of cable split across diameter (4,4)
BOLD FACE (QED)  an anagram (split) of OF CABLE “across” Diameter. Wasted a lot of time looking for a type of cable and a word meaning hefty derived from it
18 Metal point absorbs pressure in tall structure (7)
STEEPLE The metal is STEEL, the point E (from a set of four) and P(ressure) to be absorbed
19 Something buzzing around woman in tropical country (6)
BELIZE Thank goodness the “something buzzing” is the busy BEE. LIZ is your random woman
21 Cook squeezes one end of rubber stopper (5)
BRAKE Cook is BAKE, select one (either) end of rubber and insert. That sort of stopper.
24 Programme that’s drivel, quietly being dropped (3)
APP In a clue which seems to advocate dropping a P (quietly) you end up with two of ‘em. Drivel is PAP, and the first P drops one or two spaces. No-one will know which you chose

59 comments on “27706 Thursday, 2 July 2020 As sung by the random ladies of Camptown”

  1. I found this a good deal easier than yesterday’s, although it has a higher SNITCH. I had no idea who Cowdrey was, but it didn’t matter. Also DNK SET PIECE. Biffed TRIFLING & MARJORAM (the J giving me what I needed). I liked TRIFLING.
  2. BOLD FACE was my LOI by a long way. The checkers are basically no use. I, too, was looking for a type of cable that led to hefty with a D in. USB, HDMI, Ethernet, flex, CORD was tempting… Apart from that, I found it straightforward, although I never bothered to work out ADJUDICATOR, just biffed it once I had the J.
  3. LOI BOLD FACE, which is embarrassing for someone whose title for many years was typographer. POI PANAMA. I guessed there must be a Colin Whathisface… Parsing ADJUDICATOR was fun, somewhat fresh trick there. Resisted SET PIECE because I didn’t know the football terms and could only think of the theatrical sense.
  4. All but four answers in the SW completed within my half-hour target, but then I needed another 8 minutes to unravel those. LOI was PANAMA where I had spent far too long trying to have the answer contain BEA. It came to me immediately once the arrival of BOLD FACE at 16dn had put paid to that idea.

    Edited at 2020-07-02 03:42 am (UTC)

  5. My mind was thinking alike with our blogger’s and others’ on BOLD FACE. Oh, that sort of type I finally thought. And as for the biffed TRIFLING…Oh, that sort of crack I should have thought.

    I also had women on my mind while doing this with Calamity Jane, Marjorie and Viola being suggestive along with the two random ones and my aunt Dora.

    Edited at 2020-07-02 06:09 am (UTC)

  6. I found most of this fairly straightforward except for the SW corner where I was in good company looking for a type of cable. I think that marks this out as a good clue. My LOI was APP, in large part because I always think of computer program(me)s with the American spelling.
  7. A reasonable (below par) time for a crossword with a tricky SW corner. As with others, LOI BOLD FACE, SLOI PANAMA.

    NHO LAVER as vessel, just as seaweed and Rod.

    COD: VIOLIN, keeping the cricket theme throughout when it had nothing to do with cricket.

    Yesterday’s answer: some words with six letters in alphabetical order – almost, biopsy, bijoux, chintz. Aegilops is apparently the longest (not in Chambers), which sounds made up.

    Today’s question: with two examples in today’s grid, couldn’t resist, what is the longest country name with alternate vowels and consonants?

  8. Just over the half hour with almost easiest of the lot – APP – as last in.

    Favourite Colin Cowdrey memory: he had been at Oxford with our headmaster and us boarders had a fireside chat with the great man after Evensong one Sunday in 1970 when he was touring as the v-c in Ray Illingworth’s team. Remember when he came out to Australia to rescue the English from the ravages of Lillie and Thommo in 1974? Now there’s real pluck for you.

    Yes, we’ve got the ‘sharp increase’ in the dreaded COVID here at the moment and I thought that ‘Extra tax’ just had to be a SPICHARKE till reason prevailed.

    1. And why was poor Colin Cowdrey called out to Australia in ’74/75? Because Boycott refused to tour and stayed home in Yorkshire sulking till the Aussies came in ’77. He turned out then just so he could score his hundredth hundred.
      1. Unfair .. he stayed out of test cricket for three years, citing personal differences with Mike Denness. Given the number of players who have cited personal differences with him over the years, you have to allow him that one 😉
        And when he returned in 1977 after Denness and Greig had gone, he carried on for five more years including as vice captain and captain .. so hardly “just to score his hundredth hundred”
        He is a difficult, driven man, no doubt about it, but one of our best ever cricketers and deserves his knighthood. I love hearing him talk on the radio. Outspoken barely covers it..
        1. So Boycott did what he has always done, which is put himself first. Hence the infamous run-out incident in NZ in 77/78 involving Ian Botham. Also I’m not aware of anyone else refusing to play for England because of personal differences but I’m open to correction.
        2. You missed out ‘violent’. A conviction for assault should disqualify anyone from a knighthood if you ask me.
          1. According to wikipedia that conviction is unsafe, to say the least.
            But i think I’m done defending him for today..
            1. Yes I know he’s always denied it. Call me old-fashioned but I still take the view that a conviction is a conviction, and he shouldn’t have been knighted on the (implicit) basis that he should be believed over a French court.
  9. Hardest of the week for me, crawling home at 53 minutes. Didn’t help that I’d NHO Colin Cowdrey, or that as a British programmer I know that “program” is vastly more often the spelling, even over here, but mostly it was general tricksiness that had me fooled, I think.

    Enjoyed 17a NORTHEASTERN and 22a SNAKED. FOI 2d ARAGON LOI 23a PANAMA.

  10. What a mess I made of that. Got caught up having chosen OVERREACH instead of overshoot – inexplicably. And struggled for oh so so long with the SW corner. I will never wear a panama hat again. Nor will you see any bold face typing for a long time…. arrrgggg… Definitely Setter-1, Napasai-0 today…
  11. …Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;
    35 mins pre-brekker.
    Mostly I liked Indentation and Bold Face (when I eventually got it).
    Thanks setter and great blog Z.
  12. Exact opposite of yesterday – on the same wavelength as the setter and so cantered through with only one hold up BOLDFACE. Like others failed to see construction of the clue until I spotted the anagram. Though Colin Cowdry a bit obscure. A write in for me but a bit tough on younger and overseas solvers.
  13. …it should have been much quicker. I just couldn’t get BOLDFACE, so, thanks, Z for explaining that one.
    I went to grammar school in Tunbridge Wells and in my first year (’58/59) MCC came to the school…and was bowled by the school captain!
    My “old airline”, until the penny dropped, was BEA. I spent my entire working life in civil aviation and started as a General Apprentice with BEA. PANAM were already on the skids but Lockerbie sealed their fate.
  15. A late starter today, dealing with other issues. 34 minutes with LOI BOLD FACE. I’m of the age of Colin Cowdrey and Pan Am , so they were easy enough. Colin always used to walk when he knew the umpire was going to give him anyway. The SW was tough though, with SET PIECE my COD. Thank you Z and setter.
    1. Most cricketers did that then, didn’t they? Happy days, when you could be overweight and still a test cricketer ..
  16. Ha, had to google souvlaki .. I’m sure it will go well. Oregano is pretty versatile
  17. Like others I was stuck in one area. Not Northeastern but Southwestern.

    I tool over 5 minutes to get BOLD FACE and then I biffed PANAMA, vaguely associating the word with a former airline but not actually recalling PAN AM. I thought BOLD FACE was excellent. I was looking for a hefty type as in another ruffian or “Hood”. Or someone carrying “Load”. I didn’t spot the clever anagram until an alphabet trawl revealed BOLD and then my FACE lit up.

    COD: BOLD FACE.

    Edited at 2020-07-02 09:29 am (UTC)

  18. 13:59. A mixture of easy biffs and decidedly trickier clues.
    I’m reminded that I have some MARJORAM in my garden but I never use it because I’m not quite sure what to do with it. I must find out.
    1. It is virtually identical to oregano. Both members of the same genus. Imo oregano is better because it has a stronger flavour. We don’t bother with marjoram
  19. 24 min. but could only think of Canada for 23. Annoying as knew Panam well. Must learn to go the extra mile.
  21. Knew his daughter when at Oxford. Great fun and brilliant drawer of caricatures.
  22. Not much to add, I finished held up in the SW too. LOI APP, where I was desperately trying to remove a P from something. And my search for a 4 letter word for cook was a bit pathetic as well, I obviously never do that.
  23. Just not in the MOO today. For some reason I knew the cricketer but had no idea about the football reference in SET PIECE and like Guy thought a corner might be part of a stage set. BOLD FACE was quite in-your-face. Glad I’m not the only struggler. 23.09
  24. I started off in the NE with MOO and VOLIN, and carried on working the RHS. Eventually CO-RESPONDENT, ADORABLE and NORTHEASTERN allowed me to biff ADJUDICATOR and I made progress in the NW, but the SW, as with others, held me up longest. BOLD FACE finally yielded when I stopped looking for a type of cable, and PAN AM rose from the grave to give me my LOI. 34:07. Thanks setter and Z.
  25. ….and, as “located centrally” indicated “a” I biffed “Taiwan” thinking it was an anagram of “TWA -a – in”. I was in enough trouble in that corner already, having reached it in 10 minutes and ground to a halt. I don’t believe how long it took to me solve APP, or to spot that BOLD FACE was actually an anagram unlike PANAMA.

    Thanks to Zabadak for parsing ADJUDICATOR.

    FOI CO-RESPONDENT (7 clues in again !)
    LOI BRAKE (spent ages trying to use “boil”)
    COD MARJORAM
    TIME 18:16

  26. Nice chatty blog, Z. Found this quite tricky but got there in the end, with, like others, BOLD FACE the last to fall. Pan Am and Colin C not a problem, I too recall the arm in plaster versus WI incident.
    As for Boycott- I agree, not Sir material, not as far as I know known for his charitable works (unlike Botham) but the Sir has become so devalued these days by the eccentric range of people they give it to. We could do with inventing a slightly higher rank for proper Sir people to get. I await the official letter.
    2. Or we could join the rest of the grown-up countries in the world, and just ditch the whole honours system, together with other relics like the House Of Lords that have long outlived any purpose they may have had.
  27. Oh dear – I somehow convinced myself that 5d was a map projection I’d not heard of, and entered CIMPANS rather than work out the relatively simple wordplay for COMPASS. Annoying, as I was pleased with myself for figuring out the lovely BOLD FACE.

    As a Colin myself, I keep an eye out for famous ones, so Cowdrey was known to me… sort of. Couldn’t have told you his era, and therefore was a little surprised to learn that he was dead. Turns out it was 20 years ago.

  28. I too recall his innings at Lords – ’63 if I remember correctly. I know I took a sickie but my conscience got the better of me the next day and I confessed to my boss – lovely man, said only that he wished he had been there.
  29. a pleasant innings today, just under 20mins. Cowdrey despatched to the boundary early on. Even noticed the nina bag of vegetables in the middle. Laver known as a tennis great but not a vessel, though the clue was a gimme.
  30. I fell into the OVERREACH trap too – never sure of it, took PROLIFIC to break the mould.

    SW held up the longest with SET PIECE being the key to all others.

  31. ‘Trifling’ doesn’t work for me, accent-wise, but that’s not unusual. I start off normally with the last clue, and immediately warned myself not to get red-herringed by any kind of software, since I thought it was now conventional to differentiate the spelling. So it was almost LOI.
  32. I was delighted to have spotted what was going on with the hefty cable clue but managed to make a right Horlicks of it by putting BOLD CASE.

    Cowdrey no problem for someone who was brought up in Kent in the 1970s.

    We now live in the same village as Sir Geoffrey. His house is up for sale. If you’re interested in having a nosy Google Boston Hall, Boston Spa. Chintzy.

    1. One of my former work colleagues lives in Boston Spa, name of Phil Nolan.
  33. Ground rather to a halt in that tricky SW corner, finally getting the airline after eliminating the possibilities of BEA and TWA, and, after another period of thought, finally twigging what was going on with BOLD FACE. Enjoyable, anyway.
  34. Tricky in parts. We’ve had doodah recently, but since I’ve always used doodad or doohickey, I can never remember the “h” variation. I spent a lot of time with the O, D, N crossers at 14, which pointed to cuckolding. Thanks z, and setter
  35. 15.32 but a real struggle in the SW corner before finishing. Set piece, app and panama( my COD) almost saw me pay the penalty . I thought the drivel definition of pap(p) had one p which really delayed matters.

    Nice to see doodah make an appearance, is that a word used on both sides of the pond?

    1. It does only have two Ps. Dropping here is lowering rather than binning the first.

      Edited at 2020-07-02 03:51 pm (UTC)

    2. I’ve never heard Doodah in the US other than in the phrase from the minstrel song Camptown Races, where it is used as a space filler, like tra la la. While the song itself is anodyne, I think it’s origins make it a little suspect today.

      For what it’s worth, Webster’s 2nd (the US standard, and while older than the 3rd by 50 years is preferred by those of us who don’t accept that ‘Imply’ and ‘ infer’ might be used interchangeably), does not have Doodah at all, only Doodad.

      Edited at 2020-07-03 02:18 am (UTC)

  36. When I was at prep school in the late fifties, one of the parents was a chap called Peter West, who asked if his friend Colin could coach the cricket first XI. They became pretty much unbeatable. I still wonder whether that should be regarded as an unfair advantage.
  37. I was short of time today so in a rush in the SW quadrant. I regret this because I would have liked to have trIed to solve this slowly and properly. Excellent crossword. Thanks all. I will be back to normal tomorrow .
  38. I was a Kent and Cowdrey fan and well remember the huge partnership (411) against the West Indies at Edgbaston 1957, with captain Peter May. And E.W. Swanton summed up.

    I saw Boycott score 85 in a one day at Lords – every shot was along the ground. I loved ‘Boicks’, Botham hated him!

    Much as every one else, except mine was a DNF, with 26ac missing – the south west was a bit of a Bermuda Triangle.

    FOI 10ac VIOLIN

    COD 22ac SNAKED

    WOD 11ac DOODAH (Black & White Minstrels!)

    Friday beckons!

  39. I had a feeling that “Hefty type” at 16d was going to be that term from typography but I couldn’t remember the word for it. And, since I was working from a printout, I couldn’t just look up at the screen in front of me. It took me about 20 minutes to crack the SW corner. Definitely not on the wavelength this morning. 48 minutes. Ann
  40. DNF. Couldn’t get bold face. I would raise an eyebrow at the idea of type which lies flat on the page having heft but that’s just sour grapes. I was never even close to spotting the clever lift and separate definition. Had trouble early on putting Lister at 22ac for a surgeon comprised of a wound (blister) uncovered at first. I didn’t get why life meant duration in prolific. Real problems were in the SW though. Despite having solved the rest of the puzzle some facet of the grid meant I was still confronted with vast expanses of white squares, hardly a checking letter to place a foot or grab a handhold. A bit like covering oneself in oil and trying to shin up the north face of the Eiger.
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